Chapter Thirty-Two
Indy
The decision to try something with Nate was a little spontaneous and incredibly stupid of me. I couldn’t deny the fact that I felt safe with him. He had proven himself to be sympathetic, understanding, and devoted to me. He had seen my pain in feeling so helpless and acted selflessly. What more could I ask for in a guy? If this ended up like my last relationship, it won’t be pretty for him. I’ll warn Nate that I’ll kill him if it comes down to it, so he had better not screw me over.
What the hell was I thinking? He might not even like me that way. God, I have some real tickets on myself. I sat on the side of my bed all by myself. I didn’t feel that I needed him around for protection every minute of the day now. After that little trip I felt a lot more comfortable about the situation.
I had performed some wonderful things in my life. While I feared Bernie, I could not fear death itself now. I had made my decisions about the cases I took on and while I swore to myself that I was doing the right thing, I also knew I wasn’t at the same time. But I touched lives in ways that some people never do and that was all that mattered. If I died tomorrow I know that I had influenced one person to make a difference and that kind of thing was like a boomerang. As it did a full circle and came back around, the influences were construed and bounced off everyone else. In reality by touching Carrie, I was reaching many other women and her women’s group was marvellous. I felt like a proud mother. I wondered if there were others out their like Carrie.
My reasoning about Nate was flawed but I had to accept that no relationship is perfect and opposites do attract. While Nate hated what I did to these men, I punished or rehabilitated, he understood the cause now and the work which we performed tonight was the best outcome I had ever achieved. He made me a better person and made me do things I normally wouldn’t. It was hard not to hurt Joshua, but felt so wonderful to help Naomi the way I did.
I stepped into the shower and washed off the years of anger and resentment. It was time to turn a new chapter in my life. I was going to leave my friends in a day and protect them from this horrible person—that was the greatest gift I could give anyone, safety and a life of protection—one thing I couldn’t offer if we stayed. I climbed into my cold bed and closed my eyes. I was tired and wanted sleep to take me away. I lay and waited for over half an hour. This didn’t feel right; this bed was too big for just me now.
I climbed out and tip-toed down the stairs, walking into Nate’s room. I was surprised at his cleanliness, even in the dim light I could see it was spotless. There was a tiny bit of room on the bed in front of him, I squeezed in next to him with my back facing him. He jerked his body back, startled, opening his eyes, and looking at me as I lay on his bed. He laid back down and placed his arms around me, kissed the top of my head, and went back to sleep. This was what I had needed upstairs, my own peaceful dreams taking me away.
I didn’t sleep, I laid awake for hours, bothered by the fact that in one day I would be leaving, to never see Nessa, Casey, and Corrina again. The day I met them was burned into my memory, it would be a moment I would treasure forever.
A year and a half ago I had arrived at Blayney High and followed the signs to the administration office. I met Principal Leda and discussed school rules as she led me to my first class, which was Recreational Studies. Leda introduced me to the whole year and scolded me for the first time in front of my peers.
“Indiana, as this is your first day, I will let you off this one time, but we do not allow boob tubes to be worn at this school. We are lax with our clothing policy, but midriffs, mini and boob tubes are not to be worn.”
I was breaking all three of these rules today, in tasteful style, though. I could hear a girl standing to my left commenting softly to her friends. I love this chick already. As I looked over I saw a girl my height wearing black skinny leg jeans and a killer purple singlet top. The moment Leda walked off, I was approached by three very pretty girls.
“Hi, I’m Corrina, this is Casey and Nessa. You should hang with us. We’re the hot bitches and you’re far too pretty to be friends with the dregs.”
I was shocked by this girl’s confidence and the way she referred to other girls in the school. I looked at Casey, who seemed to have the same opinion as this Corrina girl, then I averted my eyes to Nessa. Simple innocence stared at me through this girl’s huge brown eyes, I became lost in her warm kindness. I knew this girl was a real friend and worth knowing.
“Sure, I can do that,” I replied back to the three strangers in front of me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Nate
I must have jumped a foot into the air. I was a startled mess, waking to find something applying pressure to my bed. The exhaustion I was feeling after the events which had unfolded over the last few days, then the unexpected road trip, didn’t put me in a great place to face an impending attack. My eyes forcefully popped open. Instead of finding a threat, I found Indy. I suppose she was a threat of a different kind, most young hormone-bound boys would love to find a girl climbing into their bed, not me. Mostly it terrified me. I had just gotten used to having friends, a girlfriend was new territory.
My mind clicked into overdrive. Should I tell Indy this was moving too fast or just lay down and shut up? Think, I yelled to myself. I had to quickly calculate the possible scenarios, reject Indy, then dodge the punch that would likely follow and send her to the arms of another guy. Maybe. Or shut up, lay down, and talk about this in the morning.
I did the latter. I thought it was the safest decision. God, what the hell was I going to do with a girlfriend? My first ever kiss was out of spite and not born from a mutual attraction. I evened out my breathing and decided not to think about this now. The sleep that I lose tonight wouldn’t be worth the repercussions, if there was any.
***
Waking the next morning, I felt very uncomfortable, arms and legs were everywhere. If Indy was going to sleep next to me, then she had to lean to share a bed. Her knee was on my lower back and her toes were sitting in my butt crack. Not to mention the arms that were resting firmly against my neck. God, this chick would smother a real man in his sleep.
I had to her push her off to regain the copious amounts of lost oxygen. She jolted awake, staring at me. Slowly she smiled.
“Morning,” Indy said, still smiling. She got up out of bed. She was going to leave the room, but I couldn’t let her—not yet.
“We have to talk, please,” I said.
“What do we have to talk about?”
Seriously, what did she think we have to talk about? Only the fact that she wanted to start dating and had slept in my bed. I had to ignore the fact that I had slept next to her on the bed in her room—that was different.
“I want to talk about this, about us.”
“Well, I like you and want to try dating you.”
“That’s it, what about all the other stuff that comes with dating?”
“I’m a virgin and intend on staying one for quite some time.” Indy crossed her arms over her chest, projecting a sternness through her voice.
“So am I,” I replied. I didn’t feel ashamed by my confession like most boys would.
“Really? But you’re 21,” said Indy.
“So what? I’ve been busy.”
I was getting very defensive and a tad angry. I couldn’t help it if I had never been with a girl before. Most guys my age were very experienced and boasted about their various conquests.
Indy stood up and ruffled my hair. “It’s okay, mate. I won’t be jumping your bones any time soon, stop sweating about it.”
Indy walked out of my room and into the hallway joining the kitchen to the rest of the house, at the same time Connor came down the stairs and saw the path she’d taken.
“Well that was fast,” said Connor, annoyance dripping like venom into my freshly revived heart.
I would love to say nothing and let his suspicions run wild, but I was a better man than that. Yes, I had won
the girl but it was not my intention to rub it in.
“No, Connor, we didn’t do anything… only slept, nothing more. It’s too soon for that.”
Indy had been walking into the kitchen, she wanted to ignore Connor’s remark. Before she reached her destination she turned around and gave me a huge smile. Oh God, get down boy, one part of my body was very happy by that gesture, not so much the rest of me. I diverted back to my room and put on my jeans, no one was going to see my happy little friend today.
Wearing pants didn’t hide my boner. I had an idea—push ups. I had to do as many as I could till my visitor decided to disappear. One, two, three, boobs, nice creamy boobs, damn it. Four, five, six… I worked harder to change my train of thought. Fifty-five, fifty-six, it was slowly working. One hundred, one hundred and one.
“You have to be kidding me… you’re buff enough and already have Indy all over you, what do you want, an eight pack?”
Connor had come into my room, presumably to make sure I wasn’t taking advantage of Indy. If he thought hard enough, he would know that wasn’t possible.
Jumping up, I sat on my bed and let out a loud, ragged breath.
“That’s not what I was doing, Connor,” I said.
“Then what were you doing? Why would you do push ups this time in the morning?” There was a small pause then Connor burst out laughing. He sat on the bed next to me and slapped me on the back.
“Oh man, I think about my parents when that stuff happens. It’s guaranteed to deflate any mood.”
Connor stood up and left the room. I followed him and we made our way over to the kitchen bar, grabbed a stool each, and waited for some breakfast. Max slapped down a box of Weetabix and the cold milk in front of us, the glares he gave me were not good.
“Indy has gone upstairs. We need to talk, Nate.” Max was pissed.
“I’m fine for breakfast today, really.” Connor sensed the annoyance from Max’s tone and ran up the stairs.
“Yes, what’s up?” I asked
Max had his hands on his pastel pink cow print apron, his attempt at intimidation wasn’t succeeding. He looked ridiculous.
Pointing his finger in the air from side to side just like Beyoncé does in her film clip, Max looked at me sharply.
“If you’re going down this path with Indy, don’t you dare stuff it up. The last thing we need is a homicidal fallen angel on the war path because her human boyfriend couldn’t get his shit together.”
Swearing sounded remarkably funny coming from Max, it really wasn’t his thing. I sat back and looked into Max’s eyes.
“Hey, calm down, this is her idea,” I protested, but it didn’t come out properly.
“No, that’s not right. Sorry, Max. No, I do want to date her more than anything, but she climbed into my bed. We’ll be taking this thing slow, real slow. I’ve never had a girlfriend and I just can’t rush into it, either.”
“Okay, but be warned, we don’t need this at the moment.” Max’s voice had taken on a high shriek, he was truly scared that Indy’s wings would become entirely black.
“I know, but I’m not going to reject her and harm future chances based on what may happen.”
“I think it’s an excellent idea. She’s a ticking time bomb who doesn’t need more boy problems, said Max.
Max was more than worried, he was fretting badly.
“She’s good at the moment, her signature isn’t getting any worse.”
The fact that she wasn’t getting better annoyed me, but I had to be happy with things as they were.
“Okay, you had better get ready for school. Play it cool and try not to tip off Connor.”
I was going to skip breakfast today—my stomach felt sick, it was mainly nerves. In one day Indy and I would say goodbye to our friends forever. This time it would be for real, except they wouldn’t know that when we said goodbye tomorrow they would never see us ever again.
I can’t say how fast it would take for Bernie to track us down or if they would call in for reinforcements. Our future at the moment was looking very bleak, that alone could push Indy over the edge and into dangerous levels of emotion. I hope I can be her anchor.
Connor and Indy came bounding down the stairs together, both ready to go. I had to put on a shirt yet and do something with my hair.
“Come on, Nate, we’re going to be late!”.
Walking into my room, I pulled out the first shirt in the tall boy dressing table. It was one of my favorites, a Casey Stoner signed shirt. I went to put it back in to grab another when it occurred to me that Brandon hadn’t ever seen it before, he would freak out over it.
Grabbing my bag on the floor, I left the room and went to join the others. As I walked past, Max threw a brown paper bag at me. Catching it with perfect timing, I peered inside to see what it was. Max had made me breakfast after all. I pulled out the buttery warm croissant and started to eat it.
We drove to school today, we all thought it was best. That way it would take about two minutes to get there and it was an easy escape if we needed one. Looking at our friends, the group dynamics looked very different. The air felt very strained and tension oozed from Mark and Corrina. The girls were huddled together while Mark and Brandon did their own thing. I’m sure I could guess what had happened but didn’t want to assume; I could have been wrong.
When we got closer, Nessa was buzzing with excitement. She flung herself at Indy and hugged her fiercely. Tears appeared in Indy’s eyes, she blinked them away. I stood close in case she needed me.
“I’m so glad you’re better. Connor told me you were all sick with gastro.”
“Yes, I’m better now.”
Indy stepped back nearly into me. She grabbed my hand in hers for support. Nessa looked down at our embrace and giggled loudly. We had held hands in the past, but this time it was real.
“Oh my god, you got back together!”
Indy held our hand up together to confirm this to the group. “So how is everyone, what’s new?” I couldn’t believe Indy had missed all the tension and filthy looks. Nessa looked at the ground then looked back at Indy. It wasn’t going to come from her mouth.
“Oh, Nessa, just say it out loud,” yelled Corrina.
Nessa moved away to sit back next to Brandon. This was her own safe haven, and where she felt her place was at the moment.
“Mark dumped me. He has feelings for some bimbo, but won’t tell me who she is,” yelled Corrina.
I had to restrain my laughter—who was she calling a bimbo? Ever since she and Mark had started to see each other, Brandon had told me that her flirting with all the other boys in our year had multiplied. She liked to show him she was desired by other men, and that he wasn’t hard to replace, and that he should consider himself privileged to be dating someone like her. I found this behavior to be pure arrogance, something I had been guilty of many times but not in regard to my social status.
The air was very tense. I was worried where to cast my eyes. Corrina had daggers attached to her face. Casey broke the edgy silence with some news. “Do you remember my cousin Natalie and how she met a lovely guy?”
“Yes, I do, she’s a lovely girl,” replied Nessa.
“Well, Jacob—not so lovely. They went on a holiday to his grandmother’s house. They were only supposed to be away for a few days. Jacob sent a fake text message to Natalie’s parents telling them she was having a wonderful time and to not expect her home for another week. The truth was he refused to take her home and made her clean his old lady’s house all day while he smoked pot.”.
“Oh my God,” Nessa gasped, holding her hand to her mouth.
Indy was now engrossed in the conversation. She held on to Casey’s every word and was doing more than sympathizing with her. I knew what that girl was thinking, she wanted more action!
“Where is Natalie now?” asked Indy with far too much interest.
“She’s home with her parents now, thank god,” replied Casey.
Indy settled back down, her moo
d was a little better, the group’s vibe was better, Corrina had perked up. Maybe she realised that it could have been a lot worse. She’s lucky Mark wasn’t a total loser like Jacob.
Indy’s body became rigid against mine; she grasped my hand very firmly, a loud gasp escaped from somewhere inside her. I looked around for the source of this anxiety only to be sent into shock. Standing against one of the trees a few feet from us was none other than Bernie. She wasn’t going to hide herself anymore, determined to do her intimidation in public under the nose of all onlookers. The snide look on her face send shivers through my body, it rocked my soul to its core. Indy was looking to me for some comfort; apart from holding her hand I could offer her none, this chick scared the crap out of me, too.
Pushing herself away from the tree, Bernie made her way over to us. With metres left to travel, the school bell rang. Indy and I were pushed along, encased in the crowd with our friends until we were inside the building. Relief flooded my heart and soothed the pounding within.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Indy
I sat down in my seat too fast and nearly lost it from under me. I pulled my desk as close to Nate’s as I could get it. He was looking at me, fear sat deep within his blue eyes, and it stained the blue essence that I found so attractive. This couldn’t be a good sign that she was now openly following us around. Why the hell couldn’t she just leave us alone?
I stared at Nate, begging him with my eyes to let me know it would be okay. He shrugged his shoulders, sat up in his chair and looked outside. A portion of his grim facade disappeared;
“She gone!” said Nate.
“Where?”
Placing his hand on mine, he shrugged again. I didn’t need words to know what he was thinking, it was written all over his face. Defeat, resentment, and anger were sitting nicely together, overlapping slightly.
I turned away from Nate and stared at the board. The teacher came into the classroom and I drifted into my own world, a place where no evil lived and everyone was trapped in a bubble of naïve innocence. It sounded like heaven, a place where I wanted to live.
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